Abalone: From the ocean floor through the courtroom door

The 2014 abalone season is upon us and all concerned Mendocino Coast citizens are hopeful for a quiet and peaceful season. And, where there is hope, there is healing. New regulations have been put in place and old demons have been exorcised if not totally obliterated.

All signs point to a renewed hope for tough and standard sentencing for those who violate state regulations for abalone.

The back story

Since the early years of the present century up until this very day, the word "abalone" has conjured up images of unfair or unequal punishment for those convicted of violating the rules and regulations memorialized by the California Fish & Game Commission. According to many coastal residents, those rules have been applied too loosely and the punishment meted out to the offenders of the rules have been so ambiguous and unpredictable as to be laughable.

The "unfair" tag has been applied mostly to Judge Clayton Brennan, the presiding judge at Ten Mile Court. What his detractors usually mean by "unfair" is really best defined by the phrase "a slap on the wrist," sometimes, according to those same detractors, little more than a lecture.

What his accusers mean when they point the finger at Brennan is either, 1. He's too lenient or, 2. He's not uniform in his sentencing. It is time to take a closer look at this situation where egos may or may not rule.

End of 2013 season

About the middle of last abalone season, sometime in August, Judge Brennan lectured a large group of MAW supporters who appeared in court in their trademark yellow slickers with Mendocino Abalone Watch printed on the slickers in clear black lettering.

What was their offense? In spite of clearly marked displays of court rules, they visibly and audibly showed their displeasure at one of the judge's abalone sentences. That kind of behavior is strictly forbidden in court. MAW did not return to court en masse again at any time during the remainder of the season.

Perhaps they should have returned to court because Judge Brennan did the research and tedious work of learning the bail schedule and the statewide parameters for abalone sentencing. And, with one or two rare but notable exceptions, he stayed the course and administered tough, severe punishment.

He said that he toughened up, not because of pressure from any group but because of, for lack of a better term, the learning curve. He said that because of what he has learned about the resource, i.e., abalone, and how it is being abused, he has become more protective of it; therefore, the tougher and more uniform sentencing.

Of course, no group of concerned citizens is allowed to mandate anything to any judge in the state. They certainly are within their constitutional rights to recommend certain sentencing parameters within the limits of state law but those recommendations are just that, recommendations.

After having read the five-part series on abalone this newspaper published in 2008, Brennan said that he would no longer dismiss on his own motion an undersized abalone charge as a frivolous charge because he learned that the most productive time in the life of an abalone is when they are from 6 to 7 inches.

To take an abalone that is half an inch under the legal limit of 7 inches is not a frivolous matter. It has every possibility of reducing the abalone population radically and it would certainly have a negative impact on future generations of abalone lovers.

New regs for 2014

The state Fish & Game Commission has made four major changes in the abalone rules and regulations for the 2014 season.

All statewide starting times have been changed to 8 a.m. when they previously had been fixed at half an hour before sunrise. That should create a much better situation for Department of Fish & Wildlife wardens. Although Lt. Dennis McKiver has said that the starting time had nothing to do with daylight and dark, it should nevertheless help with enforcement of the rules.

Should rock pickers and divers choose to jump the gun in order to take abalone illegally, they will have to do so in at least one-half hour of daylight. Advantage wardens, disadvantage poachers and cheaters.

Another major change involves abalone report cards. Although the annual limit in Sonoma County has been cut to nine, their report cards will still have 18 tags. That means that it will be perfectly legal for them to come to Mendocino County and take nine more.

McKiver said that the DFW had wanted two sets of report cards, one for Sonoma with only nine tags and another for Mendocino County allowing 18 tags, but that request went unheeded. The possibility of getting a "fly in the ointment" where Mendocino coastal residents are concerned makes this change somewhat dubious.

The change is good for the Mendocino Coast because it will bring more dollars to the local economy, e.g., hotels, motels, restaurants, service stations, grocery stores, hardware stores, dive shops and other businesses. It is bad only to the extent that it will stiffen the competition for each abalone that awaits its transfer from a rock or the ocean floor to a picker's bag.

Although the trade-off has many local vocal detractors, it should provide a net gain for the Mendocino Coast.

Moratorium?

After a "die off" of abalone at Fort Ross, the Fish & Game Commission declared a complete and indefinite moratorium for that very specific area. Will there ever be a moratorium in Mendocino County?

One can never say never but it is very unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future.

Why? The local economy for starters. The aforementioned businesses would be adversely affected. Add to that scenario the loss of revenue from the sale of fishing and hunting licenses, abalone licenses, abalone report cards and abalone tags.

Surprisingly, the loss of revenue to the courts also has the potential of limiting research by marine biologists at the Department of Fish & Wildlife, reducing the number of jobs needed to educate, enforce and mete out judgment to offenders, cut into the staffing of the DFW and defunding other entities involved.

But, hope does indeed spring eternal and the new season is ready to bring about a modicum of healing where egos no longer need rule.